The confirmation that Denmark star Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest while playing for his country at the UEFA European Championship finals has reminded everyone of the importance of knowing potentially life-saving resuscitation techniques.
Eriksen's teammates put him into a recovery position and began the first stages of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before the former Tottenham Hotspur player was tended to by expert medical staff.
The quick actions undoubtedly helped save the Inter Milan man's life, and West Ham United Head of Medical Services Richard Collinge has reminded supporters of the importance of learning resuscitation techniques.
The Hammers are proud to be supporting the Save A Life This Season campaign, which was launched in 2019 to help saves lives by educating football fans around the awareness of resuscitation techniques.
The important issue was highlighted by Cardiff City Club Doctor Len Nokes – a friend of Collinge – when his daughter Claire collapsed at a friend’s house in December 2016. She had suffered a cardiac arrest, subsequently confirmed as having been brought on by a condition called myocarditis. Tragically, she failed to recover and passed away in October 2017.
As a result of that tragedy, Save A Life This Season was created and West Ham have given their backing by producing a video to illustrate what can be done if an individual is in need of resuscitation when qualified medical assistance is not immediately available.
Collinge joined skipper Mark Noble and left-back Aaron Cresswell to take part with the aim of helping to inform the Club’s supporters and, ultimately, reducing the number of people sadly losing their lives due to heart problems.
Collinge explained: “As a Club, we wanted to help spread awareness of the acute management of cardiac arrests, made all the more poignant by Claire’s sad passing.
“We are proud to be the first Premier League team to support the campaign and we hope that other clubs and organisations will follow suit as we do what we can to prepare the public in the best possible way should they be faced with similar challenging situations.”
Every day in the United Kingdom, 470 people will die from a heart or circulatory disease.
Remember – with this demonstration, you’ve got nothing to lose and you could Save A Life This Season.
To learn more, visit www.bhf.org.uk now.